Former Oakland Officer Arrested in Emeryville Headed for Trial in Gun Brandishing Case

Oakland, CA— A rookie Oakland police officer who was fired after his arrest in Emeryville for pulling a gun on a painter outside his apartment door appears to be headed for trial.

Officer Matthew Santos had been charged in April with felony charges of false imprisonment and brandishing a firearm for the incident in February, but the brandishing charge was reduced to a misdemeanor during a preliminary hearing on Monday, prosecutors said. Santos was ordered to stand trial on the two charges.

"We're going to place the matter before a jury," Santos's attorney Nabiel Ahmed said Tuesday.

Santos was arrested at his apartment building in the 1300 block of 40th Street at about 6 p.m. on Feb. 17.

Emeryville police were called after a painter hired to paint his door said that Santos arrived home, found the painter working on his open apartment door and pulled his gun.

"Hey, get away from my door," Emeryville police said Santos told the painter.

The painter tried to run, but Santos held the gun to his back and walked him down to the building's leasing office, police said.

A building security guard was standing by as the painter was working and the building management had posted a notice that the doors were to be painted about five days before the incident.

Ahmed said today that Santos made a "reasonable mistake" in concluding that the painter was an intruder when he found him at his open door.

According to Ahmed, there are differing accounts as to whether the painter had actually done any painting at that point or had any of his equipment out when Santos found him.

He said Santos also denies that he held the gun to the painter's back and that he says he quickly put it away.

Santos had graduated from the Oakland police academy on April 3, 2015. He was still in a probationary period when he was arrested on Feb. 18 and was released from the department, according to police.

Ahmed said that because Santos was a new hire, he was still not eligible for arbitration and has no plans to fight his termination in the immediate future.

He is scheduled to return to court in Hayward on July 5 for formal arraignment on the charges, according to prosecutors. Santos is one of at least three Oakland police officers arrested over the last year. A string of scandals have surfaced in the last few months for a department once lauded as a model for policing reform.

When officers have been arrested, including Santos, their arrests haven't been disclosed for months.

Officer Cullen Faeth was arrested in December for accosting a county probation officer at her Oakland home while off-duty but his arrest did not become public until February.

Sgt. Steve Valle was arrested on suspicion of assault with a firearm in a domestic violence incident last September but was never prosecuted and his arrest was undisclosed until last month.

Meanwhile, internal affairs investigations into whether officers had sex with an underage sex worker are ongoing. Three officers have been placed on leave and two have resigned in connection with the case and Chief Sean Whent resigned as the investigation expanded.

The department has been placed under the direct control of City Administrator Sabrina Landreth after the latest acting chief, Paul Figueroa, stepped down amid revelations of racist text messages between officers.

By Bay City News

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